The present invention relates to a sheet media input apparatus, such as a payment or deposit machine, that is used for receiving both bills and envelopes, which can be made by selecting either batch input in which sheet-type media, in particular, bills are stacked and input, or envelope input in which an envelope containing the media is input.
In Japan, conventional payment machines generally use batch input in which bills are stacked and input in a batch, and except night-time safe, almost all such machines do not use envelope input in which an envelope containing the media is input.
On the other hand, in foreign countries, generally the envelope input is made, and the bill batch input is not made frequently. Since the envelope input method does not register the input money until the contents of the input envelope have been confirmed, a considerable amount of time is required between the input of the envelope and the end of the payment processing. Thus, there arises a demand for the bill batch input.
The introduction of the bill batch input eliminates the needs for envelope input, but all distributed bills are not actually maintained at a level suitable for machine processing (including determination of the genuineness and type of money, and transfer and accommodation of money), and exclusive batch input machines frequently fail to accept faded or damaged bills. Thus, a payment machine that can receive either bill batch input or envelope input by selection is required.
In providing a payment machine that can be used for both bill batch input and envelope input, one problem is that bills and envelopes can not be handled as the same media due to the difference in their sizes and in the function used after they have been received. For example, the width of the bills varies with their types, and a conventional envelope that contains distributed bills of a maximum width (about 90 mm) has a maximum width of 120 mm. Thus, when bills are transferred by using a wide transfer path for envelopes, the positions of the bills are unstable during transfer because they are significantly inclined or displaced to one side of the transfer path, thereby hindering the subsequent processing, including the separation (bills are separated and delivered), identification, transfer, and accommodation of the bills.
This invention is provided in view of these problems and its object is to provide a sheet media batch input apparatus enabling both bill batch input and envelope input.